The invention relates to a network system, and in particular to a network system and method for reducing power consumption of a network server.
Data transmitted through a network can be text, audio, image, and even video files which require wider transmission bandwidth.
Presently, personal computers connect to the Internet through cable or asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) modems. With the expanded bandwidth, users have increasingly employed home network servers for hosting websites or email servers.
The number of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses provided to computer devices, however, is limited and fixed, and addresses are not always available. Thus, a provisional IP address (i.e. dynamic IP address) is randomly provided, by an Internet service provider (ISP), to a computer device whenever the computer device connects to the Internet through a modem. After the connected computer device disconnects from the Internet, the dynamic IP address will be provided to another computer device connected to the Internet. To build a network server using a dynamic IP address, a domain name server able to dynamically regulate domain names and corresponding relationships for IP addresses is required. When a personal computer acting as a network server connects to the Internet, the computer transmits its own IP address provided by an ISP to the domain name server, and the domain name server then links the IP address and a previously registered domain name by the Internet user. Thus, the domain name server can respond to request for the domain name of the personal computer with the provided IP address.
Although personal computers can act as network servers using a broadband connection, the frequency of service requests for same is much lower than for enterprise servers acting as network servers. Further, the personal computers must always remain active but are generally idle, resulting in needless power consumption.